One of the aspects of my work that I find the most challenging and rewarding is being let in to the dark places of a human being.

The hateful places. The places that don’t want to be seen or acknowledged or touched. What is striking about these places, the parts of ourselves that we loathe, that we’re ashamed of or disgusted by or in denial of, is that they are not unique.

Everyone’s got them. Everyone. Every. One.

And yet…and yet…we all go around as if we don’t. We go around hopin’ and a wishin’ that no one else sees or figures out that these parts are there. We go around feeling like some part of who we are is so damned unacceptable.

And while human’s do judge each other, it seems to me that a heck of a lot more energy goes into judging ourselves than others.

What I’m moved by is the resiliency of humanity. That with all the pain and suffering going on in the world, add to it a whack of self loathing, it’s amazing anyone gets out of bed at all!

I love results and people going after what they want and achieving things and expressing passion and all that ra ra stuff. But what I am discovering I love more than that, what I love most of all…

Those moments when I get to witness people lighten up on themselves. Fall in love with themselves. Show tenderness towards those parts that seem so not okay. It seems to me that if we could each give ourselves a little more room to be human, our humanity could come out into the light and brighten things up.